


To Come or Go

by Odyle



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, Tam Lin (Traditional Ballad)
Genre: Essays, F/M, Kylo Ren Redemption, Meta, Speculation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-04 06:00:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21192728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Odyle/pseuds/Odyle
Summary: This meta maps the plot points of the romance of Rey and Ben Solo to the relevant plot points of the Ballad of Tam Lin and speculates where the story will go inThe Rise of Skywalker.





	To Come or Go

**Author's Note:**

> Trigger warning: There is discussion of rape, sexual assault, and abortion. 
> 
> Thank you to Crait for forming this into something readable. 
> 
> Crait put together [a playlist of versions of the Ballad of Tam Lin](https://playmoss.com/en/sniktboom/playlist/tortured-fairy-knight-kylo-ren). If you are unfamiliar with the Ballad of Tam Lin, I recommend listening.

In analyzing the relationship between Rey and Ben and imagining where it may go from here, it is helpful to consider the story of Tam Lin. This ballad provides a framework that viewers can use to understand the arc of Ben and Rey’s relationship. 

**Tam Lin: A Brief Overview**  
  
A young woman, in most versions named Janet, is moved to visit a place called Carterhaugh. She's been warned not to go to Carterhaugh because there is a fairy there named Tam Lin who makes a habit of demanding sacrifices from young women who enter his domain: your mantle, a gold ring, or your maidenhead. In some versions she ignores this warning because of hubris; Carterhaugh belongs to her or her father, so she does not believe Tam Lin will accost her on her own land. In other versions, Janet is seeking out a confrontation with Tam Lin. Whatever the case, Janet disregards the warning and goes to Carterhaugh. 

In Carterhaugh, Tam Lin confronts her when she is picking flowers or doing some other maidenly chore. He demands a sacrifice; Janet objects. At this point, many versions of the ballad diverge. Tam Lin and Janet have a sexual encounter, but the descriptions range from being rape to being completely consensual. Wiser and better researched people than I have written on this topic. There is a reasonable case to be made that even when that particular section of the ballad does not make clear that the encounter was consensual, contextual clues elsewhere in the text suggest that it was. Modern versions of the ballad more often portray the sexual encounter as consensual. 

Janet returns home to her normal life, but soon she realizes that she is pregnant with Tam Lin's child. Her father offers her any of the knights in his service. He'll order them to marry her and claim her child as their own, but Janet rejects this and announces that she'll have Tam Lin for the father of her child or no one. In some versions, the possibility of aborting the pregnancy is raised, but either Janet dismisses the idea or Tam Lin later talks her out of aborting the pregnancy.

Janet goes back to Carterhaugh to confront Tam Lin about her pregnancy and learns that he wants to be with Janet and have a child with her, so he tells her his tale. He was a human knight who was captured by the Fairy Queen and taken under her thrall. On Halloween night, he'll be sacrificed to Hell as a tithe. The only way to prevent his death is by having Janet remove him from the Fairy Queen's thrall by knocking him off of his horse as the Fairy Queen's procession rides on Halloween night. Janet must hold on to him as the Fairy Queen transfigures him into a series of beasts. 

The appointed hour arrives and Janet does her duty. She tackles Tam Lin off of his horse and holds tight as he goes through several forms, eventually settling as a man. This return to humanity is a demonstration of his redemption. Janet wraps the naked Tam Lin in her mantle, signifying her claim over him. The Fairy Queen curses them both, but particularly Janet, for depriving her of a blood sacrifice. Janet and Tam Lin go off to live together, having mastered both lemons and teamwork. 

**The Ballad of Rey and Ben Solo**  
  
Rey is Janet and Ben is Tam Lin. Rey is a young woman who is not well acquainted with the ways of the wider world. She's been confined to the small world of the outpost on Jakku. In place of a noblewoman’s title and land, Rey has the Force, which gives her some measure of power in the context of the universe. Like Janet, her story starts when she has a rude awakening that brings her into the wider world and helps her realize her own power while bringing her into contact with the Tam Lin figure. 

Ben is a young man who does the bidding of another party. Instead of assaulting maidens when they come to pick flowers, Ben works for and later leads the First Order. Tam Lin has the Fairy Queen; Ben has Palpatine (and Palpatine's decoy Snoke). These broad strokes fall easily into place, but the finer details of the narrative often also conform to the tale of Tam Lin.

Janet goes to Carterhaugh because she wants to and in many versions of the ballad has ownership of it. Rey similarly shows up at the center of the narrative because she is our protagonist; she has ownership of this narrative. These intrusions upset Tam Lin and Ben, provoking their assaults on Janet and Rey. As the descendant of Anakin Skywalker, conventions dictate that Ben Solo should be the hero of the sequel trilogy. To find that he is not upsets the narrative that audiences expect. The outrage against Rey as the protagonist and accusations that she is a Mary Sue are a demonstration that Rey has intruded in the narrative in a way that makes certain viewers uncomfortable. Within the context of the narrative, there is emphasis that Rey is a nobody from nowhere and her parents were no one, so why should she be so powerful and so connected to Ben? Rey first trespasses not on physical ground, but over psychological and narrative boundaries. 

While there is no rape in the story of Rey and Ben, the scene where Ben holds Rey captive and interrogates her stands in for a sexual encounter. She calls him a creature in a mask because he isn’t human until he reveals himself to her, an odd show of intimacy between a villain and hero. Ben tells Rey that he can “take whatever [he] wants.” This language is familiar in discussion of sexual assault. In the story of Tam Lin, Janet’s virginity is one of her prized possessions. While Ben doesn’t steal Rey’s virginity from her through rape or sexual assault, he arguably still takes Rey’s bodily autonomy from her. He probes her mind and picks up details Rey wants to keep private. Despite getting past some of her defenses, Ben does not break Rey just as Tam Lin does not break Janet. Rey turns the tide on Ben during the interrogation scene, making use of what is likely their fledgling Force bond to probe him and find his deepest insecurities. Ben and Rey conceive a Force bond during their encounter, which stands in for the pregnancy and tethers them in a similarly important way. Janet is unable to choose one of the knights in her father’s hall to be the father of her child while she knows Tam Lin is out there lurking in the woods. Rey is similarly unable to form a close bond with another Force user while Ben is lurking in the universe. (Note that Rey does journey to find Luke Skywalker, only to discover that she cannot connect with him or learn what she wants from him because he has closed himself off from the Force.) The bond with Ben is something that she cannot replicate with another.

Janet demonstrates self-determination that is unusual for a woman in a ballad or fairy tale. She makes the choice that leads to her initial encounter with Tam Lin, makes the choice to reject the knights she is offered by her father, and commits to the rescue of Tam Lin. Rey similarly takes control of her own story. She solves her own problems and, for better or worse, determines her fate. By contrast, Ben is not in control. Tam Lin comes under the thrall of the Fairy Queen after he falls from his horse. Ben's relationship with his master follows a similar pattern;e is in a weak position when he comes under the influence of Snoke. (It is likely that there is a connection between Snoke and Palpatine, but that has not been revealed at the time of this essay. If Palpatine is the mastermind behind Snoke's actions, then Palpatine has been the Fairy Queen figure for the whole story.) Rey is surrounded by the community of the Resistance while Ben, like Tam Lin, is isolated and finds himself among enemies. Rey has control and community, both of which Ben lacks. 

Palpatine likely doesn't want to keep Ben around for companionship. Ben Solo is not good company. He can barely control himself at the best of times and is impulsive in many of his actions. We cannot know until _The Rise of Skywalker_ is released, but it is reasonable to guess that Palpatine recruited Ben for his power and intends to use that power for his own purposes. His use of Ben's power is analogous to the Fairy Queen's use of Tam Lin as a human sacrifice. Just as one doesn’t often find spate knights lying around in the road, one doesn’t often find Skywalkers alienated from their families and friends, and it’s annoying to have to replace either on short notice.

**But what about Beauty and the Beast?**  
  
I have seen this comparison pop up in passing when people discuss the relationship between Rey and Kylo. While some pieces of the story do ring true for them, I believe the Tam Lin tale to be a better match. Beauty and the Beast is, essentially, about meeting in the middle. The original tale was intended to comfort young girls who would go on to marry men they might find beastly and strange. By keeping an open heart and decorum, they might come to accept the man and no longer see him as a beast. When the man is accepted as he is, then he is revealed as the prince of the girl’s dreams. 

Tam Lin is about change and redemption. Tam Lin is a person whose lot in life was determined for him by the Fairy Queen, but he has not managed to rise above it and so does evil in her name. He encounters Janet, but is not powerful enough on his own to resist the Fairy Queen and live a normal human life. Janet must claim him as her own and literally wrestle control of Tam Lin from the Fairy Queen. It is by changing from some sort of non-human creature back to the human he once was that Tam Lin is redeemed. Janet is rewarded with the father of her child for taking the initiative to reclaim him and having the strength to control him despite his flaws. If Beauty and the Beast is about turning lemons into lemonade, Tam Lin is about turning lemons into chemical weapons and taking what you want.

Additionally, there is the matter of the third party who has a major influence over the status of the cursed character. In Beauty and the Beast, there is a witch or fairy who cursed the Beast in the past, but does not feature as a character in the story. In the story of Tam Lin, the evil Fairy Queen is a present and important character. Promotional materials for _The Rise of Skywalker_ signal that Il Palpa is back and we can assume that he’s been behind a lot of the preceding events, including Ben’s fall.

Rey will not be accepting Ben as he is. The audience has seen that she has asked him to change in order to preserve and enhance their bond. When he did not or could not respond in the way that Rey wanted, she shut him out. 

**Bendemption or what lies ahead**  
  
Their bond cannot be severed by the closing of a door. The third movie will have to see some resolution of the bond. In the story of Tam Lin, the bond formed by the pregnancy ends in a happy ending. A similar fate awaits Ben and Rey.

_The Rise of Skywalker_ is the conclusion of the Skywalker saga. The prequel trilogy was a tragedy. The original trilogy offered a bittersweet ending. The sequel trilogy, as the final conclusion of the saga, is likely to end in a happy ending. Ben Solo failing to be redeemed and dying a villain would not make for a happy ending. 

Just as Janet stole Tam Lin from the Fairy Queen, Rey will steal Ben from Palpatine. The process appears to already be in motion. Ben has not yet come to terms with wanting to be rescued, and he appears not to realize the extent to which his actions were influenced and controlled by Palpatine. One of Ben's overriding desires is to be powerful and in control. He has the illusion of control and power as the leader of the First Order. The introduction of Palpatine is likely to provoke a revelation, particularly if Palpatine decides to bring his pet Skywalker to heel. Ben must have the revelation that he is under Palpatine’s control before he can want Rey's cooperation in escaping the influence of Palpatine.

Rey has motivation to save Ben. In addition to having a bond with him through the Force, he’s one of the few Force users still kicking around in the universe. Ben has the potential to ease Rey's loneliness and fulfill her greatest desires in a way that her friends cannot. Rey will be motivated to save Ben Solo so that she is not alone. 

The event for which Palpatine intends to tap Ben is unclear, but will likely be a major plot point in the third film in the series. It will take significant effort to reclaim Ben Solo from the influence of Palpatine, which is likely to cause Rey further heartache and strife. face down his beastly natureInstead of having to hold him as he undergoes transformations into a beast, she instead will have to physically. The Kylo Ren mask will be removed and destroyed, returning Ben to his human form and ending his life as a monster.

Rey will offer Ben some token that marks him as hers. This will likely be some important object such as a lightsaber or other object that has utility. The object will be something that signals to others that Rey has claimed Ben just as Janet's mantle signals to the Fairy Queen that Tam Lin belongs to Janet. 

Ben and Rey will conspire to defeat Palpatine and free Ben from his control. While the Fairy Queen lives at the end of Tam Lin, Ben and Rey will kill Palpatine at the end of _The Rise of Skywalker _(or at least seem like they have). The death of Palpatine has more to do with the finality of the series than adhering strictly to the beats of Tam Lin. 

**Conclusion**  
  
Tam Lin lays out a pattern for a romance where the villainous lover is redeemed. The story of Ben and Rey so far follows the beats laid out by the ballad. Given the likelihood of Ben's redemption in the final film, it appears that the story will see the Tam Lin story all the way through. The story of Ben and Rey is a romance and it will end happily.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on twitter as @odylistic. Please feel free to yell at me about Reylo and Bendemption.


End file.
